Saturday, May 25, 2013

The Next Big Thing Blog Tour

I’ve been tagged by
Amy Timberlake for The Next Big Thing Blog Tour! Amy recently published One
Came Home, which is my bedtime reading right now. Check it out!

I’ve never taken a
“Blog Tour,” although I love to travel, so this is me, learning as I go.

Here are the
questions—and my answers:

1) What is the working title of your next book?

It started out as CARGO and has been changed to THE
MYSTERIOUS CARGO. I just submitted this ms and am waiting to hear if my first
choice editor likes it.

2) Where did the idea come from for the book?

Every summer I drive 1000 miles across I 90 from Chicago to
New Hampshire and then 1000 miles back again. I am always fascinated and amazed
at the trucks and vehicles I see and the things they carry. That’s where the
working title, CARGO, came from. Then, on a drive downstate I saw the most
amazing piece of cargo I have ever seen. It was huge. It was long. It was
unmarked and I have no idea what it is. I took photos. And I knew I had to
include that mysterious cargo in this book.

3) My ms is a picture book for 4-6 year olds. Currently it
is a little heavy on text (800 words), and I’m hoping that once an illustrator
is on board we can reduce some of the text by telling the story through the
pictures. I have already cut as much as I feel I can without having to write
tons of illustration notes and losing the flow of the text. The next round of
cuts needs to be a collaboration between editor, illustrator, and myself.

4) What actors would
you choose to play the part of your characters in a
movie rendition?

I half-way imagine Bart Simpson as my narrator. The sister
is a little like Lisa and a lot like me as a child. The parents could be Tom
Hanks and Meg Ryan. Not sure who could play the part of the dog.

5) What is the
one-sentence synopsis of your book?

On a two-day family
road trip a young boy forgets about his missing video games and becomes obsessed
with following the progress of one particular truck carrying a very mysterious
cargo.

6) Who is publishing
your book?

That is a good question. I have submitted to one editor and
am hoping she will love this story enough to want to work with me on it, but I
will not put her on the spot by naming her. It took me twelve tries to find the
right home for TRUCK STUCK. I hope this book reaches the right editor sooner
than that.

7) How long did it
take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

It has taken me 4
years I think to bring this story from random notes and journal ideas to a
completed ms. I thought I was going to write in rhyme, since each of my
previous 3 books rhyme. I wrote a prose version of the story intending to
substitute rhyming text once I’d nailed down the plot details. Every time I
tried to force the story into rhyme it became unworkable and cumbersome. I
liked the flow of the prose. After a year or more of struggling to rhyme I
finally gave myself permission to write in prose. I feel so liberated!

8) What other books
would you compare this story to within your genre?

One book that I
looked to for a model is the Golden Book, Scuffy the Tugboat, by Gertrude
Crampton, illustrated by Tibor Gergely. Scuffy takes off downstream and passes
through different kinds of landscapes until he reaches the wide ocean. The
changing scenery and transition from rural to urban landscape reminded me of
the changing landscape on my own road trip. I also looked at A Trip to the
Bottom of the World with Mouse, by Frank Viva. This is another book about a
trip and I liked the way the story is told in dialog. It is a Toon book, a
comic for youngsters. While I don’t see my story as a comic, it does have a lot
of dialog.

9) Who or what
inspired you to write this book?

While I was
originally inspired to write about the amazing trucks I keep seeing on my travels,
I fell upon a phrase that really pleased me—“I go! You go! We go! Cargo!” That
line has become a refrain in this non-rhyming text, with variations to the line
that mirror the story. It captures the energy and fun I hope is in the story.

10) What else about
the book might pique the reader's interest?

All through the story the boy is hoping to discover what the
mysterious cargo is. (Spoiler Alert!) And he never does find out. I intend to
set up a Facebook page where readers can post photos or drawings of the
interesting cargos they see and perhaps someone will solve the mystery of the
mysterious cargo.

Next up on the Next Big Thing Blog Tour? Lori Degman, author of One Zany Zoo and inveterate rhymer will pick up the baton. Take it away, Lori!